Muske, Carol. Women and Poetry: Truth, Autobiography, and the Shape of Self. University of Michigan Press. 1997

The recording of a life within history also creates us. It is through the telling of stories that we justify our emotions
at any given time. “…the poem of witness must exist—because it is necessary to refresh moral life”
(Muske 24). It is through the act of truth-telling testimony that we find our self, that we find our truths.